Particle Physics Brick by Brick: Atomic and Subatomic Physics Explained… in LEGO

Gr 8 Up—Still makes quantum physics as intriguing as alchemy with his explanation of the universe. The book provides a visual component that enhances explanations and helps make sense of concepts by using LEGO bricks to represent the building blocks of matter, such as neutrons morphing into protons. The periodic table is clearly explained, for example, through color-coded blocks. Realizing that terms such as quarks, leptons, fermions, and bosons are unfamiliar to those outside the field, a handy glossary is provided within the book flaps. Straightforward language and pithy subheads ("What's the Antimatter") make the ideas accessible and entertaining. The design is notable for managing the information with insets, rules, arrows, photos, and colors that create an attractive and logical organization. It is Still's use of metaphor that makes the concepts most tangible—during the r-process, for example, unstable nuclei build rapidly in size "like a snowball rolling down a snow-covered hill." As a result, physics becomes much more than equations. However, Still only references male scientists in particle physics in a time line of predictors and pioneers.